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The photographer Brian Harris, who passed away at the age of 73 of cancer, ended his schooling at 16 to work as a courier, and eventually became one of the most respected British photojournalists of his generation.

An International Professional Journey

He travelled the world as a independent or a employee for major British publications, documenting such events as the fall of the Berlin Wall, famine in Ethiopia and Sudan, the Troubles in Northern Ireland, battlefields in the Balkans and throughout Africa, the aftermath of the Falklands war and four US election campaigns. He also created poetic scenic views of the countryside around his home county of Essex home.

By his own calculation he took over two million images, taking an average of 100 a day, but he stated that figure several years ago. He kept sharing historical and recent images each day on online platforms until a short time before his death, and had been arranging to deliver a lecture on his life and work.

Notable Projects

Stories from a rollercoaster career featured an costly premium flight in 1991 to attend the burial in India of the assassinated leader Rajiv Gandhi, where he fainted from sunstroke and pneumonia and was cooled down with ice that had been used to preserve the body.

His 1983 images of the at that time Labour party leader Neil Kinnock with his wife, Glenys, toppling into the tide on Brighton beach were carried across eight columns of a leading page, and are often reprinted as a hideous example of staged photo hubris. His 2016 memoir, ... And Then the Prime Minister Hit Me, took the title from an exasperated John Major striking him with a rolled-up briefing paper.

Professional Milestones

He was appointed as the Times’ youngest ever staff photographer when he started there in 1976, at the age of 26, and worked around the world for nearly a decade, including coverage of the end of the internal conflict in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He later stepped down over what he saw as editing of his most powerful images of famine in Africa.

In 1986 Harris was made head photographer as the team was assembled to create a new newspaper. He was instrumental in forming the style of editorial photography that the paper was famous for, helping set new standards for press images and newspaper design, in dramatic images covering multiple pages. Among numerous awards, he was named the industry-recognised photographer of the year in 1990 for his work in eastern Europe documenting the fall of communism.

He worked as a freelance after being let go in 1999, and significant projects thereafter included a year spent photographing cemeteries across the world in 2006 for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which led to an exhibition launched in London – where he gave a private viewing to the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh – and a moving book, Remembered.

Background and Start

Harris was raised in east London, to Dorothy and Leonard Harris, an technician who later helped his son build a darkroom in the garage. In the 1950s, the family relocated farther east – and up in the world – to the Rise Park housing estate in Romford, Essex. Brian went to Chase Cross secondary modern school, acquiring practical skills in woodwork and metalwork, before departing at 16.

At a central London photo agency, he rose rapidly from delivery boy to photographer, and launched his working life at east London local papers before progressing to major publications.

Colleagues and Legacy

Fellow photographers, often outpaced by him, recalled his work as astonishing. A colleague, who worked with him in the initial stages, called him “a great and brave photographer”, an inspiration to a generation of young colleagues. Another associate, a freelance organiser, said he “transformed the possibilities of news photography during newspapers’ peak era”.

Private World

In 2001 Harris reconnected through a website with Nikki Bertroya, whom he had first met as a three-year-old in primary school, and they became close companions through his final decades. After receiving his terminal diagnosis, they embarked on a road trip in Europe, posting sunny images of fine dining and good wine, and revisiting significant sites including Dresden and Ypres.

His final project, finished a few weeks before his demise, was to transfer his extensive collection of 55 years’ work to a permanent home. Among his preferred archive images he reflected on a youthful Harris drinking large glasses of wine with the actor Helen Mirren: “What a blessed life I’ve had – no remorse and no ‘Must Do’s’”.

He was wed twice, each union ended in divorce.

He is survived by Nikki, his son Jacob, from his second marriage, Nikki’s daughter, Holly, and by his sister, Jan.